


These Lines of Lightning (Mean We're Never Alone)

by TrueColours



Series: There's Gotta Be A Better Way [6]
Category: Descendants (Disney Movies)
Genre: Ben gets all the snuggles because he deserves it, Ben is everybody's sub, Ben-centric (Disney: Descendants), F/M, Fingering, I have a crush on Evie and It Shows, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, M/M, Multi, Non-Linear Narrative, Polyamory, Vignette, Virginity, because the Isle
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-21
Updated: 2019-08-21
Packaged: 2020-09-23 09:21:03
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,525
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20337787
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TrueColours/pseuds/TrueColours
Summary: Ben and the VKs learn about negotiating, sharing, and different kinds of love.





	These Lines of Lightning (Mean We're Never Alone)

**Author's Note:**

> This takes place in my preferred canon-divergent timeline where Ben and the VKs started negotiating with Uma around the middle of Descendants 2. Now they're in the middle of ongoing negotiations about how best to solve the problem of the Isle, which involves Ben visiting the Lost Revenge a lot (and having a lot of sex).

Ben finds Evie standing on a little balcony overlooking the party. Her expression is open and gentle. Her make up is perfectly drawn. The blue of her dress echoes the blue of her hair. Mal is menacing, Jay sultry, Carlos cute, but Evie’s beauty is like something out of a fairy tale, and he tries to tell her so.

‘I’ve never seen anybody look more a princess than you do tonight.’

‘I’m just a girl who’s very, very lucky,’ she says. She takes a step to the side, giving him space to stand beside her.

‘Are you taking some quiet time?’ he asks.

‘I like to look down and see the whole scene,’ Evie answers. She looks pensive. Candles and fairy lights down below them reflect their light in her eyes.

‘I’m not quite sure you’re right about that, you know,’ Ben tells her, leaning against the balustrade. ‘Being just a girl. Audrey was rather quick to dismiss your mother’s status.’

‘I expect the legality is complicated,’ Evie says. ‘This is an unprecedented situation, after all.’

‘Yes,’ Ben agrees. ‘At the end of the day, it comes down to what people think, and, well, there’s still a lot of respect for royal blood.’

‘I come from a line of one Evil Queen and a dozen so-so ones,’ Evie says. She leans next to him. He can feel the warmth of her arm. ‘Maybe people will decide one bad apple isn’t worth cutting down the whole family tree. But do you know…it doesn’t matter to me nearly as much as it used to. As much as I thought it would.’

Ben laughs, because hearing his own thoughts come out of somebody else’s mouth is pleasing and surprising in equal measure.

‘It’s all a _joke_, isn’t it,’ he says. ‘King at sixteen!’

Evie’s curls swing as she turns her head to look at him, face full of compassion. ‘You’re a good king,’ she says quietly, and he can tell she means it.

‘I didn’t feel like a king on the Isle,’ he says quietly. ‘Ropes held me, just like they’d hold anybody else. I missed my girlfriend, just like anybody else would. And I didn’t know anything about how to behave there. Uma was getting more done there than I ever could, and she’s not any kind of princess.’ He looks back out over the party. ‘If people need to think we’re royalty, then that’s alright,’ he says, ‘but we know the truth.’

‘Exactly.’ She gives him a little bump with her shoulder. ‘_We _know we’re only human, but I don’t think it would reassure people to tell them that.’

They watch the party quietly for a few moments. The latest batch of Islanders at their first court function. Everything seems to be going well. The court is getting used to accepting the newcomers, and there are enough established villain kids and their Auradon friends to ease the way. Ben allows himself a small smile of satisfaction and then speaks again.

‘You know, it’s strange. In some ways I feel like I know you the least of your friends, and yet we’re so alike.’

‘It’s because when we arrived on Auradon I was the only one who already had some manners,’ Evie says crisply.

‘And manners means hiding who you truly are,’ Ben says.

‘Exactly.’

‘You’ve got Auradon manners _and_ Isle manners,’ Ben says. ‘You fit in here so well straight away that I couldn’t imagine how you’d fit in over there, but somehow you did. Helping me when we went to the Isle was…was the kindest thing anybody’s ever done for me, really.’

‘Oh!’ Evie says, with a little deprecating shake of the head.

‘I mean it,’ Ben presses on. ‘And watching you…it makes me think maybe I could be like you someday. Like I could fit in with you.’

Evie knits her eyebrows sympathetically. She reaches out and squeezes his forearm.

‘You _do_ fit in with us,’ she says.

‘I stick out,’ Ben says, ‘but people put up with me anyway.’

‘I’ll say,’ Evie says. ‘You seem to have Harry Hook wrapped around your little finger, to begin with.’

‘I wouldn’t say that,’ Ben mutters. He’s suddenly glad that the garden is twilit, because _that’s_ a subject he can’t discuss without blushing.

‘But relations are improving?’ Evie probes, a little archly. She may be a lovely villain, but she’s still a villain.

‘They are,’ Ben allows. ‘On the subject.’ He clears his throat. ‘I’ve been meaning to ask you. How you feel. About me and the others.

‘Happy,’ Evie says at once. She meets Ben’s eyes. ‘Truly. Especially about Mal. The two of us…well, we never really called it what it was, before you. I had a very narrow idea of love, and she…’

‘She was afraid,’ Ben finishes.

‘Yeah.’ Evie sighs, looks down and away. ‘You were so good to her. You are.’

_What else would I be_, Ben thinks, but doesn’t say. He’s learning that the world is full of all kinds of cruelties. There’s no sense in forcing the both of them to dwell on that.

‘I’m surprised you never tried for me yourself,’ he says instead. ‘After all, I am a king.’

‘I couldn’t do that to Mal,’ Evie says, ‘or to you.’ Her eyes are so gentle that Ben reaches out instinctively and takes her hand.

‘What do you mean by that?’ he asks.

‘I mean that – ’ she bites her lip. ‘Please don’t take this as a criticism of your friends, but it seems like a lot of the people around you were…trying to use you, for one thing or another.’

Ben sighs. She hasn’t said anything he doesn’t already know is true, but hearing it spoken aloud is like putting a finger on a bruise.

‘You’re right,’ he says. She twitches her fingers, and he realises he’s tightened his grip on her hand. He relaxes it. ‘King first, boy second. That’s me.’

‘I was excited to meet you, of course,’ Evie says, ‘but you were busy then, and before too long…well, I can only see you as you.’

‘And…what do you think of me?’ Ben asks. Evie looks down and breathes the faintest of laughs.

‘Are you wondering why you’re seeing all three of my best friends and not me?’ she asks.

‘Well, I – ’ Ben fumbles. ‘We don’t always have to do what our friends are doing, but, um. But yes.’ She’s watching him patiently out of those brilliant dark eyes, and is it any wonder that he’s feeling flustered? ‘What I mean is…I’m closer to the others, now, and I want to find a way to be close to you too…I’m just not sure what that way is, yet.’

‘I’m not sure either,’ Evie says, ‘but I know what you mean.’ She purses her lips thoughtfully.

‘It might be nice,’ she goes on, ‘to share Mal with you. And for that you and I would need to be comfortable around each other.’

_That _idea, and the genteel way she puts it, are enough to silence Ben for several seconds. When he finds his voice again, it sounds rather thin.

‘Do you think…ah.’ He clears his throat and tries again. ‘Shall I try kissing you?’

‘That’s very forward!’ Evie says. ‘Oh, don’t look so worried, I’m not really shocked.’ She turns to face him fully, placing a hand on his chest, then glances down at the party.

‘From the outside we’d look almost perfect,’ she muses.

‘More than almost,’ Ben says, covering her hand with his.

‘You _do_ know your lines,’ she says approvingly. ‘I’m a slightly disreputable princess, but I think that would just add a touch of romance to the gossip.’

‘I don’t see you that way,’ Ben promises. ‘You’re…my friend.’

‘I didn’t have many friends,’ Evie says, ‘before.’

‘Me neither,’ Ben says, and it feels like the most natural thing in the world to cup her cheek with his free hand. He wants to be close to her, to shower her with affection. He lowers his face towards hers.

‘My first kiss with a prince,’ Evie says dreamily. ‘Make it a good one.’

‘I’m actually a king,’ he reminds her. Villains do keep forgetting that, even the ones who were at his coronation.

Evie’s eyes turn wicked. ‘With a _king_,’ she amends. ‘Make it even better.’

Her mouth finds his. It’s…different from the other kisses he’s had, with Mal; with Carlos and Jay; with Harry and Gil; and from the ones he’s dreamed of having from Uma. It’s good, the way having the very best of anything is good. Her lips move gently against his, and it’s right and wrong at the same time. Her beauty doesn’t catch him in the guts and the groin the way the others’ does, but it leaves him speechless all the same. As they draw apart, he knows with perfect clarity that he loves her.

It turns out that that can mean dozens of different things. He wants to learn what this one is.  
  


* * *

  
‘That was so much better,’ Ben tells Mal, clambering onto the jetty and shaking the lake water out of his hair.

‘It was _not_,’ she says. She pulls herself up behind him and sits down with a wet _splat_. ‘I don’t like it, I can’t do it, you’re a liar.’

‘Good people don’t lie,’ Ben says.

‘_That’s_ a lie,’ Mal retorts, but her pout has a little bit of a smile in it this time.

‘Carlos likes training with me, you know,’ Ben tells her.

‘Well, yay for Carlos.’

‘I mean, he doesn’t mind being bad at sprinting, and you shouldn’t mind being bad at swimming.’

‘Oh, so you’re saying straight-out that I’m bad now?’ Mal demands.

‘Well.’ Ben smiles. ‘You did tell me to stop lying.’

‘I called you a liar. I didn’t tell you to stop.’ Mal smiles back very slightly. ‘You know I like it when you’re a little bit bad.’

Ben laughs.

Being visibly bad at things always puts Mal in a temper, but the sun is shining, a light breeze is ruffling the surface of the lake, and time spent learning to swim is time well spent, so Ben is happy anyway.

He would be happy to bask on the jetty all afternoon, but Mal is starting to huddle already.

‘Are you cold?’ he asks. She shakes her head. ‘You look cold.’

‘Well, you hugging me won’t help when you’re this wet,’ Mal snaps. ‘I – oh. You’re actually really, really warm. Come here.’

Ben tucks in behind Mal, and she leans against his chest. He wraps his arms around her and squeezes her with his thighs. It’s a far cry from the first time they came here, when she was barely comfortable with his hand on her chin. It’s lovely. Ben rests his forehead on her shoulder and breathes the scent of her skin.

‘You’re…’ Mal says carefully. ‘You’re pretty handsome in your swimming things, you know.’

‘Thank you,’ Ben says. The praise starts off a soft glow inside him.

‘I like these,’ Mal says. She twists a hand round awkwardly behind her to stroke down his abs. It tickles. Ben jumps and yells.

‘Sorry,’ Mal says, but she stirs her fingers again anyway. Ben holds still this time, and the sensation morphs from ticklish to something different, something vulnerable and pleasurable that flickers along his nerves and makes him tug her closer.

‘You look beautiful,’ he says. ‘Always.’ He kisses her neck.

‘That’s nice,’ Mal says, so he does it again; small, tender kisses between her ear and the curve of her shoulder. Mal hums gently and leans back into him. If he’s handsome in his swimming things, she’s a vision in hers. He tries to keep the longing he feels for her tamped down, but he knows he feels it. He likes to feel it.

There’s hardly anywhere safe to put his hands when she’s dressed like this. He keeps one arm snugly round her waist and trails his other hand slowly down her arm until he reaches her hand and folds it in his. She twists in his arms and kisses him on the lips. It still fills him with happiness whenever she comes to him like that. Her mouth and hands aren’t alien to him now the way they were at first, and the familiarity only makes it feel better. He parts his lips for her, and gives a little _ah_ when her tongue flicks between them.

‘You warmer?’ he asks softly when she pulls away.

‘Yes,’ she says, a little breathless. ‘You?’

‘Too hot,’ he says ruefully. Mal giggles, then glances away. He can tell she’s flustered. He tries to control himself.

‘You can touch me, you know,’ she says, leaning into him again. She’s said that a couple of times before. It took him a while to understand that _touch me_ meant _touch me more intimately than you’re currently doing_. He’s not sure what someone who grew up on the Isle wants or expects from courtship, but he’s determined not to treat her with a shred less respect than he would a princess of Auradon, so he draws her to him with one hand in her hair and the other in the small of her back.

‘Can I touch you?’ she asks.

‘Of course,’ he says. He doesn’t think he could deny her anything. She runs the palm of one hand over his chest and down his flank, and a trail of fire seems to wake up behind it. She’s looking at his body instead of into his eyes, and he finds that he likes it. He likes the idea of being pretty to look at. She kisses him again, and he sinks willingly into it, and then he feels her hand on his thigh, and he snatches her wrist and breaks the kiss.

‘Mal – ’ he says. Pleasure is spiking through him. His body is making it very obvious how he feels. Mal looks down between his legs and looks more flustered than ever, but then she turns fully to face him and moves her legs so that she’s kneeling over his lap, one knee on either side of his hips. She’s suddenly so close to him. Ben feels as if he can’t breathe. His hands come up of their own accord to her bottom, and he feels heat crawling up his neck.

‘I…I really do want to,’ Mal says, ‘I think.’

‘I want to as well,’ Ben admits. It doesn’t feel disrespectful to lean forward and kiss the tops of her breasts. It feels right. Her skin is unbearably soft under his lips. He slides his hands off her bottom and around her waist, pulls her closer, opens his mouth against her skin.

‘Oh, that’s…’ Mal shivers. ‘That’s okay, I think.’ She pulls back a little; he lets her go at once. ‘I’m sorry, I have no idea what I’m doing.’

‘Neither do I,’ Ben tells her.

‘Really? I thought it would be safe to do it here.’

‘I mean…we can make it safe, but people usually don’t need to because they’re…’

‘Because they’re what?’

‘Married.’

‘Wait.’ Mal sits back on her heels, gaping a little. ‘People in Auradon only have sex when they’re _married_?’

‘Or, well…’ Ben says. ‘Very serious. Or else…discreetly.’

Married is the official line, anyway. Ben understands that there’s a difference between public image and private truth, but he also knows that he’s a bad liar and hates the idea of getting away with things that his subjects can’t.

‘Wait,’ Mal says again. ‘So what do you mean by _safe_?’

‘Children at the right time,’ Ben says. ‘What do you mean by safe?’

‘You know.’ Mal makes one of her frustrated hand gestures. ‘The typical meaning of safe!’

Ben gets it, then. Just another thing about the Isle that he should have realised without being told, he supposes.

‘You’re looking sad,’ Mal says. ‘Stop looking sad. I was fine! Everybody was scared of me.’

‘You feel safe now?’ Ben asks, brushing a lock of hair off her face. ‘With me?’

It’s exactly the kind of question Mal doesn’t like to answer. She purses her lips, wobbles her head from side to side, and finally admits,

‘Yes.’

He wants to give her everything she wants. He especially wants to give her the things she couldn’t have before.

‘I don’t want…to make you look…bad,’ he says.

‘Puh,’ Mal scoffs. ‘I’m a villain kid! I always look bad.’ She looks at him and her expression softens. Ben can tell she’s thinking of what it would mean for him.

‘I wouldn’t tell anyone,’ she says. ‘It’s nobody’s business, anyway.’

That’s a new way of looking at it. Not secret, but personal. Private. They kiss again, and this time Ben tries letting his hands wander. Mal flinches at first as he squeezes her breast, then softens with a little hum of approval. It doesn’t feel as though he’s getting away with something. It feels like the most private and most important thing he’s ever done in his life.

Their lips press together, and Ben wraps Mal in his arms and longs to carry her to a high tower and surround her with silks and strawberries and kisses until she forgets the Isle and all its terrors forever. They shift; she’s on the ground; he’s over her. His stomach lurches. He wants to stop. He never wants to stop. His mouth goes to her neck, and she’s so slight in his arms, a hard-muscled little slip of nothing. She trembles as he kisses her shoulder. She’s warm against him. His skin is on fire.

‘Ben,’ she whispers. She’s clinging to his shoulders. His hands want to slide all over her. ‘Ben, touch – touch me.’ She takes his hand. He sees her bite her lip, irresolute, then steel herself and guide his hand up between her thighs. She’s looking right in his eyes, looking as scared as he feels, as he moves her swimming costume carefully to the side and slips his hand underneath.

It feels nothing like the careful little diagrams he’s seen in books, and he doesn’t dare look. She’s all soft folds and warm wetness, so much of it that his fingers glide when he moves them. In the absence of any other guidance, he tries to be gentle. He keeps his eyes on hers as he explores her by feel. In a way it’s anticlimactic – she seems to be enjoying it less than she enjoyed him kissing her neck – and yet at the same time he can’t believe that they’re the same people, on the same day, and he’s touching her so intimately in real life.

He finds what he thinks might be the entrance to her vagina. ‘No!’ she says sharply, so he withdraws his fingers again, brings them up slowly between her folds, then back down, up again and down. He attends to her reactions as he does so. Her body releases a little of the tension it was holding when he began. Her breathing deepens. Her eyes flicker shut for just a moment.

He props himself on his side, tucks her against him and strokes her gently. Her eyes are closed now, and she turns her face into the side of his chest. She twitches each time he runs his fingers over her.

‘Ben,’ she breathes. ‘Like that, Ben…Ben…Ben…’

He lowers his lips to her forehead. She’s got her hand on his bicep. Her grip tightens, her fingers digging painfully into the muscle. She gives a tiny _oh_. Ben _wants_, more fiercely than he’s ever felt anything in his life before; there’s an ache in his groin, and he finds he’s moving his hips infinitesimally, grinding against nothing as he touches her. It’s a delicious torment to stay quiet and mostly still, to keep crooking his fingers steadily as she coils tighter and tighter in his arms.

‘Mal,’ he says, and kisses her brow. She gives a sharp little cry and grabs his wrist, but she doesn’t pull his hand away. He doesn’t know what he’s done, but he hopes it’s good. ‘Mal, I love you. I love you, I’ll always love you, Mal…’

‘Ben!’ she gasps. She’s trembling. He can feel it through his arms and all down his side, and he never wants to stop, never wants to let her go. He feathers kisses over her face. ‘Oh!’ She spasms sharply, once, twice, and then the spasms blend together into one long shake. ‘Ben!’ She grabs onto him with both hands. Her nails bite. ‘Ben, oh, oh, _ow_ – ’ Her thighs clamp together and she twists away, out of reach of his hand.

‘Did I hurt you?’ he gasps.

‘No.’ She’s on her back, panting, one arm thrown across her eyes. ‘No, no, I – I’m – that was…’

He rolls so that he’s over her, his weight on one elbow. He looks down into her face. She’s the loveliest thing he’s ever seen.

‘Good?’ he suggests hopefully.

There’s a pause. Then Mal, eyes still closed, nods.

Ben feels warmth unfurl in his chest. He bends down and kisses her on the mouth. She parts her lips for him, and he feels little jolts and tremors go through her as he licks into her mouth.

‘Did you – ?’ he asks.

‘Stop!’ she says sharply, smacking his arm. She sits up, visibly pulling herself together, and looks from his face to his swimming trunks and back again. She reaches for him. ‘I’ll – ‘

‘No,’ Ben finds himself saying. ‘Don’t.’

Mal stops with hand outstretched. Her eyes go back to the obvious bulge in his trunks. Her expression is extremely dubious.

‘Let’s stop there,’ Ben says.

‘I owe you one,’ Mal says sharply.

‘You don’t owe me anything.’

‘Yes I – !’ Mal cuts herself off. ‘I like things,’ she says carefully, ‘to be even.’

‘They are even,’ Ben says gently. ‘Please, let me give you this. I love you.’ He cups her cheek.

‘That’s the hand you just had on my – ’

‘Sorry!’ He swaps hands quickly. ‘Let me take care of you.’

She bites her lip, looks anywhere but at his face, finally gives a tiny nod. ‘Alright,’ she says.

‘Thank you,’ Ben says softly. He leans in to kiss her again, with all the tenderness he has in him. ‘I love you.’

And Mal brings him close and hides her face in his neck and puts her lips right to his ear so that she can whisper,

‘I love you too.’  
  


* * *

  
‘I can’t believe you’re fucking Harry Hook _regularly_,’ Carlos says. ‘Once you might get away with, but _regularly_?’

‘What do you mean, “_get away with”_?’ Ben asks. They’re sitting on the steps that lead to the upper deck of the Lost Revenge, face to face, legs tangled together. Ben bumps his knee against Carlos’ waist in an odd sort of leg-based caress. There’s all sorts of ways to touch someone that you wouldn’t know until you tried them.

‘Don’t you worry he might stick his hook in you just to liven things up?’ Carlos asks.

‘Well.’ Ben twists his mouth. ‘Not his _hook_, maybe.’ It’s the kind of remark that wouldn’t even have occurred to him a few months ago. Carlos responds – rewards him, really – with a smack. ‘It’s just the same as how we are with Jay, really. He can pick us up and throw us, so we have to trust him.’ He gives Carlos a glance to see if any of this is resonating. ‘Well, _I_ like that about him, anyway.’

‘Never really thought about it like that,’ Carlos says, ‘but I see what you’re saying. That’s different, though. I’ve known Jay my whole life and he’s full of hot air.’

‘So’s Harry,’ Ben says. Carlos scoffs. ‘I mean it.’ Ben can hear his own voice turning tender. ‘He wouldn’t hurt me.’

‘If you say so,’ Carlos says, ‘but trusting him has to be a lot more work than trusting Jay.’

‘It is,’ Ben agrees, ‘but I like that.’

‘You know you’re the ballsiest son of a bitch I’ve ever met?’ Carlos says. Ben laughs, because Carlos’ cursing is rare and delightful, and having that kind of comment directed at him is rare and delightful, and because he knows he deserves to be scolded for his recklessness, though it’s been paying off very well so far. Then he runs his hand over Carlos’ fluffy curls, down over his cheek, cups Carlos’ chin and tugs just a little, in invitation. Carlos comes forward with his hand, and they start to kiss: quick, light little kisses, breaking off continually to smile. With all the wonderful feelings Ben has for all the people who he gets to touch these days, Carlos is the one who makes him feel the most _happy_. He pulls away enough to get another look into Carlos’ eyes, searches for words and finds none, laughs a little and shakes his head and goes back in to kiss him again. Carlos is smiling too, his happiness a slow-dawning thing. He’s still a little incredulous about all this. Islanders don’t get a lot of belly rubs. That thought doesn’t dampen Ben’s happiness right now, but it does add a little urgency. He grasps Carlos’ chin more firmly and kisses with tongue, and at the same time he hears boots on the deck above them.

The ship is full of crew coming and going, but Ben would know Harry’s tread anywhere. He’d know it in his sleep.

If Carlos makes Ben happy, Harry makes him _hungry_. He’s so mercurial, so fierce, so unlike anyone who’s grown up on Auradon, that Ben can never quite trust this thing they have to continue. At the same time, he knows he won’t be getting what Harry gives him anywhere else. So he learns his walk, follows him with his eyes, is always aware of where he is in the room.

Harry’s footfalls stop above them, at the top of the stairs. The hairs on the back of Ben’s neck prickle, but he doesn’t stop kissing Carlos, who deserves his full attention, no matter who’s lurking behind him.

‘Back again, De Ville?’ Harry asks loudly. Carlos jumps and breaks their kiss. He looks up warily. Ben keeps his eyes on him.

‘Here to negotiate with Uma,’ Carlos says.

‘Negotiate, eh?’ Ben can just _hear_ how Harry’s smirking. ‘Seems like you’re finding the ship pretty comfortable these days.’

‘It’s not so bad,’ Carlos says guardedly. Ben gives him a quick reassuring squeeze, on his calf, which is the bit of him closest to hand.

‘And you didn’t greet the _first mate_ when you came aboard,’ Harry says, with exaggerated disappointment. Ben hears his leathers swish as he sits down on the step right at Ben’s back. ‘And now you’re kissing my king.’

‘_Our_ king,’ Carlos says.

‘You’re really brave,’ Ben tells him, and kisses him again.

He feels Harry’s fingers toying with his collar. Then Harry leans in and nuzzles into the nape of his neck.

‘Certainly pluckier than you used to be,’ he says. Then he _breathes_ against Ben’s neck and presses closer, mouthing, biting, nudging Ben’s head to the side for a better angle, and Ben has to break his kiss with Carlos to gasp; he’s _weak_ for the feel of Harry’s teeth on his neck and he loves being weak.

‘_Our_ king, is he?’ Harry says, his voice full of laughter and his mouth full of Ben.

‘That’s right,’ Carlos says, and grabs the front of Ben’s shirt and kisses him again.

Harry gives Carlos a shove in the chest. Carlos goes backwards, his shoulders hitting the wooden panel bannister. Ben is wondering whether he ought to start playing mediator – he is _so_ enjoying being pulled back and forth like a prize, but he wouldn’t want anybody’s feelings hurt – when Harry clamps an elbow round his neck and pulls him hard back against him. Ben goes limp. He can’t not.

‘Sorry, majesty,’ Harry murmurs. ‘I got jealous.’ He relaxes the choke hold, brings his hand to Ben’s face, turns Ben’s face to his, kisses him on the mouth.

Carlos grabs Harry’s thumb and pulls.

He doesn’t do any damage, because Harry lets his hand go with the pull. He looks up at Carlos, his eyes and mouth widening into three _Os _of studied surprise. Surprise and delight; Harry does love it when things go unexpectedly.

‘There’s this thing called sharing,’ Carlos says. He’s kneeling over them, keeping a tight hold on Harry’s thumb. ‘Goodness 103; you might not have heard of it yet.’

‘I was sharing,’ Harry says. His expression can only be described as insolent.

‘There’s also _taking turns_,’ Carlos persists. He gives Harry’s hand a little shake.

‘Is there?’ Harry sits up slowly to Carlos’ height. Ben’s left looking up at them both. ‘Well, puppy, seems to me if it’s my ship then it might be my turn.’

‘Seems to _me_ it’s not your ship,’ Carlos says. ‘Maybe you’d better run and ask Uma whose turn it is.’

Harry laughs. Ben watches with interest. There’s a lot of eye contact going on. He knows that he shouldn’t be greedy; that he can’t expect everything to work out exactly to his liking, but wouldn’t it be wonderful if Harry found Carlos as pretty as Ben did? If Carlos decided that Harry was just the right amount of scary?

‘Hmm, I wonder whose side she’d be on?’ Harry says. His fingers curl around Carlos’, and he squeezes, hard.

‘Ben!’ Ben hears his name from the bottom of the steps. Harry and Carlos don’t react, but he looks and sees Gil, beckoning him with an outstretched hand.

Ben isn’t sure what he’s up to, but he’s feeling compliant. He’s also feeling mischievous, and Gil’s face is just full of mischief. So he takes Gil’s hand, and Gil tugs hard. Ben half-steps, half-topples down the steps, out from between Carlos and Harry, and Gil immediately grabs him round the waist, hoists him over his shoulder and runs.

‘Got him!’ he yells, and Jay bobs out from behind the mast, whooping in triumph, and falls in beside them.

‘Hey!’ Harry and Carlos shout at once.

Gil and Jay high-tail it across the deck, almost bowling over a couple of pirates as they go.

_I love this ship_, Ben thinks. Uma’s crew think it a great joke that the king is courting seven different villain kids and counting, and they’re not planning to let Auradon in on that joke any time soon. They were never too impressed with his kingly dignity either, so it costs him nothing to let them see Gil and Jay hauling him around like a sack of potatoes if that’s what they want.

It’s very much what he wants.

Carlos is dashing after them, Harry hard on his heels, his coat flapping like a set of bat wings, if bats came in red. Gil makes a final bolt for his cabin. Jay is there ahead of them, holding the door open, gesturing with his arm: _go, go, go!_

‘_Mind my head!_’ Ben shouts at the last second. Gil skids to a halt and ducks through the door, and Jay slams it shut in Carlos’ face and drives the bolt home.

‘Got you!’ Gil crows, setting Ben on his feet and pulling him into a bear hug.

‘Jay, let me in! You’re the worst!’ Carlos shouts from outside. Jay is leaning against the door-frame, that delightfully wicked smile plastered all across his face as he shakes with silent laughter.

‘_Gil_!’ Harry’s voice joins Carlos’. He pounds on the door. ‘Open up! First mate’s orders!’

‘Keep it closed!’ Jay shouts back. ‘Orders of an advisor to the king!’ He catches Ben’s arm and pulls him towards him. ‘Should I open it?’

‘Whatever you prefer,’ Ben says. Jay bathes him in the full force of that smile, then lifts him bodily, spins him round and _slams_ him back against the door.

‘What are you _doing_ in there?’ Harry shouts.

‘What do you think?’ Jay calls back.

‘I think you’ve got an appointment with my hook, Jay.’

‘You wish. Hey, Carlos? I’ve got him _right_ up against the door. So near and yet so far, huh?’ He bounces his eyebrows at Ben and then leans in for a kiss. Ben _loves_ him right now. He loves all of them. He’s never felt so wanted.

‘I hate you!’ Carlos yells.

‘We formed a team,’ Gil says, ambling over to the door. He runs his fingers through Ben’s hair. ‘You should have formed a team.’

‘I’m telling Uma,’ Harry calls. His voice sounds a little more distant. Ben can imagine him walking away, twisting to complain over his shoulder.

‘I’m gonna be in trouble,’ Gil says. He sounds delighted about it.

‘We’d better make it worth the trouble, then,’ Ben says. ‘Jay, put me where he can get at me?’

Jay swings him away from the door and tosses him down onto the bed. Ben laughs as he bounces with the impact, and Gil leans down to cover his smile with a kiss.


End file.
